Titanomachy
The Titanomachy, also known as the Ten-Year War'''Theogony, 617–643: "So they, with bitter wrath, were fighting continually with one another at that time for ten full years, and the hard strife had no close or end for either side...", '''War of the Titans, Battle of the Titans, Battle of the Gods, or simply just the Titan War is an event in Hesiod and Homer's Greek Mythology. It makes its début in around 700 BCE and have made their most recent appearance in Rick Riordan's Greek Mythology book, Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters. History The Titanomachy was a ten-year series of battles fought in Thessaly, consisting of most of the Titans (Mount Othrys) fighting against the Olympians (Mount Olympus) and their allies. The war was fought to decide which generation of gods would have domain over the Cosmos; it ended in victory for the Olympians. Greeks of the Classical Age knew of several poems about the war between the gods and many of the Titans. The dominant one, and the only one that has survived, is the Theogony attributed to Hesiod. A lost epic, Titanomachia, attributed to the blind Thracian bard Thamyris, himself a legendary figure, was mentioned in passing in an essay On Music that was once attributed to Plutarch. The Titans also played a prominent role in the poems attributed to Orpheus. Although only scraps of the Orphic narratives survive, they show interesting differences from the Hesiodic tradition. How The Battle Happened Zeus waged a war against his father with his disgorged brothers and sisters as allies: Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon. Zeus released the Hecatonchires and the Cyclopes from the Tartarus (where they had been imprisoned by Ouranos, then Cronus) and they allied with him as well. The Hecatonchires hurled stones, and the Cyclopes forged for Zeus his iconic thunder and lightning. Fighting on the other side allied with Cronus were the other Titans with the important exception of Themis and her son Prometheus who allied with Zeus. Atlas was an important leader on the side of Cronus. The war lasted ten years, but eventually Zeus and the other Olympians won, the Titans were imprisoned in Tartarus, and the Hecatonchires were made their guards. Atlas was given the special punishment of holding up the sky. In some accounts, when Zeus became secure in his power he relented and gave the Titans their freedom. Hyginus relates the Titanomachy differently: "After Hera saw that Epaphus, born of a concubine, ruled such a great kingdom, she saw to it that he should be killed while hunting, and encouraged the Titans to drive Zeus from the kingdom and restore it to Cronus (Saturn). When they tried to mount heaven, Zeus with the help of Athena, Apollo, and Artemis, cast them headlong into Tartarus. On Atlas, who had been their leader, he put the vault of the sky; even now he is said to hold up the sky on his shoulders." Following their final victory, the three brothers divided the world amongst themselves: Zeus was given domain over the sky and the air, and was recognized as overlord. Poseidon was given the sea and all the waters, whereas Hades was given the Underworld, the realm of the dead. Each of the other gods was allotted powers according to the nature and proclivities of each. The earth was left common to all to do as they pleased, even to run counter to one another, unless the brothers were called to intervene. Trivia |-|On-Screen Notes= On-Screen Notes *It is presumed in some accounts that because in some versions Cronus was also the god of time, he made it stretch into ten years. **However, originally, the battle normally lasted ten years. References